STAMFORD -- Mayor David Martin is attempting to make one of the city's largest purchases within an unprecedented timeframe to address ongoing overcrowding issues in half of Stamford's 12 elementary schools.

To do it, Martin will have to convince dozens of elected officials to spend upwards of $65 million to acquire a former all-girls Catholic school just on the outskirts of downtown.

The frenetic pace of the deal is being driven by the need to close out the approximately $10 million purchase of the school from the order of nuns that once ran the Sacred Heart Academy in time to meet a June 30 state-mandated deadline to be eligible for up to $55 million in school building funds needed to renovate and possibly expand the existing three-story brick building.

To apply for that money, Stamford must show its commitment to contributing toward the cost of the project. The city cannot afford to build a school without the state chipping in, but the state will not consider chipping in if the city is unwilling to put up some of its own money. To put up some of its own money, the Martin Administration must the project past all of the city's boards.

"It's a complicated thing to accelerate this, but if we don't get the application in by June 30, any school opening by 2015 is off the table and you're probably not going to get open in 2016, either," Martin said.